Randy Shilts (1951 – 1994)

Randy Shilts was a very highly acclaimed and well known writer. He authored several books including, And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic, was a reporter for both The Advocate and the San Francisco Chronicle and also wrote for some San Francisco television stations.

He was born in Davenport, Iowa on August 8, 1951 and grew up in Aurora, Illinois with his parents and five brothers in a politically conservative, working class family. He attended the University of Oregon in Eugene where he majored in journalism. He worked on the student newspaper and became an award winning managing editor. Shilts came out publicly when he was 20 and ran for student office with the campaign slogan, “Come out for Shilts.”

Shilts was a free-lance journalist for many years because as an openly gay man, it was difficult for him to get hired by any newspapers or television stations back in the 1970’s. He was finally hired by the San Francisco Chronicle in 1981 becoming the first openly gay reporter with a gay “beat” in the American mainstream press. The AIDS epidemic was just starting to get nation-wide attention in 1981 and Shilts devoted himself to covering the story of this disease. He published, And the Band Played On in 1987 where it went on to win the Stonewall Book Award and brought him nation-wide literary fame. The book was made into an HBO film in 1994 and starred Matthew Modine and Lily Tomlin among others. The movie earned 20 nominations and 9 awards including 1994’s Emmy for Outstanding Made for Television Movie.

Shilts’ other books include, The Mayor of Castro Street:The Life and Times of Harvey Milk and Conduct Unbecoming: Gays and Lesbians in the U.S. Military. He discovered that he was HIV positive in 1987 and died from complications due to AIDS in 1994 at his ranch in Sonoma County, California. His partner, mother, and brothers were at his bedside when he died. At the time of his death, Randy Shilts was planning a fourth book on examining homosexuality in the Roman Catholic Church.